Thomas King Books In Order

Publication Order of DreadfulWater Books

Publication Order of Minerva Chronicles Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Graphic Novels

Publication Order of Picture Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Thomas King is an American-Canadian author (history and nonfiction books) and a broadcaster presenter. Born in Sacramento, California, King identifies himself as both Greek and German descent. He is a Ph. D holder from the University of Utah. His reputation is based on his many novels that tend to address the marginalization of American Indians/ Native Americans. He is famously known as the author of Green Grass, Running Water, The Inconvenient Indian, The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative, The Black of the Turtle, and much more.

King has taught at the University of Alberta, University of Minnesota and Canada and he is a professor at University of, Canada, Ontario, and Guelph. Besides writing, King has been involved in activism and politics. He has criticized programs and policies both in the United States and Canadian governments in many books and interviews. He is a man worried on the aboriginal rights and prospects in North America. He expresses his fears that the native culture and more so the native land will continuously be taken away from the native people.

The Inconvenient Indian:

The Inconvenient Indian is a book that narrates some of the essential activities that have transpired in the lives of the Native people of North America. The narration is brilliantly written clearly, indicating the significant ideas in a slight layman’s narrative to the subject of discussion. The story is straightforward to understand, due to the style of the author, who lay out his ideas in a slight layman’s language.

The book is comprehensive, and it touches not only one topic but several topics. The topic is inclusive of; “wars, temporary treaties, misrepresentation of Indians in Hollywood, misrepresentation of what Indians “want,” implementation of mandatory residential schools and much more.” At times the author generalizes his work but tries to support his points by providing examples that help in giving a deeper meaning of his message. He highlights; the stereotypes, hidden histories and the common myths about the Native people of North America.

The story develops a brief overview of the main point of discussion; it also tries to narrate the Indian and the White relationship, and how Indian end up being disadvantaged. Through assimilation and annihilation, whites have come out to find a solution for the Indian problems. Former US Presidents such as Obama and John Kennedy, together with Stephen Harper, Canadian PM, have come out of the media to address this issue. However, funnily, they assume the threats on these native people, and they give a false claim that in actual sense they have never got engaged in the Indian society. Thomas King says,

“…in the political world, apologies seem to have little to do with responsibility, and it appears that one can say ‘I am sorry’ and ‘I am not responsible’ in the same breath.”

Thomas King further proceeds to give familiar titles that have been given to Indians; “Live Indian, Dead Indian, and Legal Indian” (in Canada they have been classified as members of the status and the Non-members). Apart from the complex nature of the native people, they have come together unfairly to confuse the whites to the extent that even today it is still thriving.

Despite all these truths which were never exposed, the author decides to do a turn taking. He narrates that at one point these Native people could also be blamed as it was like they were trying to throw themselves out because of some minor issues. One of the reported scenarios is that they also engaged themselves in slavery. Some of them decided to ignore the “Emancipation Proclamation of 1863” which ordered them to give up on slavery. However, it is wrong to put a judgment on them from the standards of “civilized White people.” Slavery remains to be slavery; it does not matter to practices the act.

The author narrates two scenarios that can help a reader understand, the Indian-White relationship whether it works or not. To begin with, the assumption that all the natives have a common culture, history, and so on. This is a very unjust system, and it does not portray any fairness in the whole continent. Secondly, There is always a common question on Indians “What Indian want?.” The question is very much reversed, and in reality, it is “what whites want?” It has never been about Indians but Whites.

Green Grass, Running Water

Green Grass, Running Water is divided into four parts each with a different story. “King mocks the grandiosity of the storied biblical tradition, fusing these dominant/dominating tales with characters from the old Hollywood, western literary canon and Indian pop culture.” The narration begins by introducing the first character Coyote. He is dreaming of owning the entire World. He hears a voice in the dream saying, “I want to be Coyote and Coyote says, no, sorry, that identity is taken. You can be a dog. However, of course, in all his resulting confusion, the dog gets confused and starts calling himself a god.” As the story continues to flow, it turns biblical in nature. Talking about creation from diverging from different versions, the story flows around a female who is also having characters which are mythical. “There’s First Woman who meets the Lone Ranger; there’s Thought Woman who meets Robinson Crusoe, there’s Changing Woman who meets Ishmael.”

The creativity of myths is formed in between the narratives, compost of group of characters near a reserve in Alberta. The characters are interconnected in the story just like a web. Each character gets distraction from myths. Common myths stated in this book include the Lone Ranger, Ishmael, Robinson Crusoe, Talking Coyote and Hawkeye. It is like they myths which generate the characters in the story.

Thomas King presents a story in which there is full compatibility between the myths and the daily life events. The story is an example of a cosmological illustration. The characters here are bounded in a complex nature to enhance the creativity of the author. The author managed to link the different creation of stories together and combined them into a meaningful message. This is a clear indication of the authors and unique approach in putting together his ideas, in a way that is very much understandable and interesting to the reader.